Australia: Lighthouse notches first Group I victory with Coolmore Classic

Lighthouse, a stakes winner at Kentucky Downs in 2020, won the first Group 1 race of her career in Saturday’s $441,600 Coolmore Classic for fillies and mares at 7 1/2 furlongs at Royal Randwick Racecourse in Sydney, Australia.

Ridden by Jason Collett for trainers Ciaron Maher and David Eustace, Lighthouse ($7.50) closed from third with a quarter-mile remaining to take the lead in the final sixteenth, winning by about two lengths over 30-1 Mirra Vision.

Hinged (7-1) finished third, with 8-5 favorite Espiona only eighth of 12.

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Lighthouse, a 5-year-old Kentucky-bred mare by Mizzen Mast, races for the LNJ Foxwoods Stable of Larry, Nancy and Jaime Roth. Lighthouse was based with trainer Simon Callaghan in California when she won the $400,000 Music City Stakes at Kentucky Downs.

A winner of 8 of 17 starts, Lighthouse’s win in the Coolmore Classic ended a three-race streak of second-place finishes, two of which were Group 1 races – the C.F. Orr Stakes at seven furlongs at Caulfield Racecourse on Feb. 12, and the Canterbury Stakes at 6 1/2 furlongs at Randwick on March 5.

Lighthouse won her first four starts in Australia in three handicaps and the minor Chester Manifold Stakes from early November to early January.

Maher told the Australian press that Lighthouse will be considered for the Group 1 Queen of the Turf Stakes at a mile at Randwick on April 9.